Following last year's lauded debut LP, Yumi Zouma return to Cascine with their sophomore album, Willowbank, a collection of dreamy, disco-indebted pop tracks. The album's namesake is a wildlife reserve in the band's home base of Christchurch, NZ, a community on the mend in the wake of a devastating earthquake in 2011. The Yumis, whose four members are scattered across the globe, reunited in New Zealand to write and record Willowbank. The result is an album that channels both the tight-knit togetherness and the unparalleled beauty of their native land. Willowbank is also some of Yumi Zouma's best work to date, refining their effortless, windswept songwriting sensibility, while also exploring a new pallet of sounds and textures..

Just over a year after releasing their lauded debut LP, Yoncalla, Yumi Zouma return with Willowbank, the band’s sophomore album. For the making of Willowbank, Yumi Zouma's members — Charlie Ryder, Josh Burgess, Christie Simpson and Sam Perry — settled on a plan to reunite for the New Zealand summer. To complete what would become their first significant work written and recorded entirely in their home country, they rented a studio in Christchurch’s semi-demolished CBD, on one of the few remaining blocks that still characterizes the city from before it was destroyed by a series of earthquakes.

Ethereal electro-pop group Yumi Zouma began in 2013 as a home-recording venture by three friends in Christchurch, New Zealand. After sharing files with the Cascine record label out of Brooklyn, they were invited to join its roster and prepared their first release, the four-track EP I. Issued in early 2014, the record was quickly embraced by the blogosphere, selling through multiple vinyl pressings and leading to a collaboration with influence Air France, the by then disbanded neo-disco duo. The pair lent new vocals to Yumi Zouma's cover of their final single, "It Feels Good to Be Around You," before original lead singer Kim Pflaum left the group and was replaced by Christie Simpson.

Yumi Zouma revealed their debut album, Yoncalla, to the world last year. Now, just a little over 12 months later, and they’re prepping its follow-up. Titled Willowbank, it’s slated to hit shelves on October 6th through Cascine Records.

Turntable Kitchen recently commissioned Yumi Zouma to cover a classic record in its entirety for the site’s Sounds Delicious subscription service. After months of deliberation, the Yumis eventually landed on Oasis’ landmark 1995 LP (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, and without giving away too many spoilers, let’s just say they nailed it. We’ve already heard their beautifully blown-out, shoegaze-y cover of “She’s Electric”, and today the group shares their slinky and very Yumi-esque (the highest compliment) dream-pop version of Morning Glory‘s best track, “Champagne Supernova“, the first song they tackled for the project.